I spent Halloween night at a strip club. Thankfully the strippers had taken the night off to lend their stage to live music. The Penthouse is a dingy yet charming club in an area of Vancouver that gets sketchy after dark. I was worried that there could be some unwelcomed nudity disrupting my concert going fun...luckily the only nudity present was in some tasteless costumes... ie:
There were some great costumes as well. My favorite was probably the guy in Uma Thurman's Kill Bill yellow jump suit or the guy dressed as the king of hearts, walking around in a box very well painted with a cut out of his face, which was very well painted as well.
Anyway, the concert was really wonderful. The first band was Big John Bates. They had a folksy/rock sound that made me think of Flogging Molly but subtracting the Irish element. Someone said Big John Bates is Hungarian Folk Rock...which pretty much fits perfectly. They put on a really good show! The next band was The Carnival Band, a 30 piece marching band in a small venue. This was awesome. I guess to describe their sound I would say pep band/New Orleans funeral jazz/Beirut (the band). And because these descriptors might have your head swimming, I took a video (not the best sound quality, but nonetheless) :
It was a pretty amazing experience being crowded in with this huge band in such a small place. I loved it.
Unfortunately I didn't get to stay for the last band, but the walk home at 11:30 was seedy enough I'm glad I didn't wait too much longer. Vancouver loves their Halloween!
